The Antagonist is a sword and dagger defensive specialist. He exhibits remarkable patience in combat, using his sword in a unique defensive style in which he grips the hilt in his main hand and the dagger/sword tip together in his offhand, the dagger's blade running parallel against the sword's. In this fashion, the sword is never used for offensive combat, but actually takes the part of Antagonist's shield, allowing him to effectively parry a multitude of attacks at various angles. The uniqueness of this grip is that it enables him to parry/deflect/block nearly every weapon, regardless of size and strength.

Throughout the fight, the Antagonist sets up his opponent for mistakes through his patience and deftness. He bides his time until his enemy slips up and allows him to dip in close enough for a quick strike at an exposed body. When this occurs, the Antagonist attacks quickly and precisely with a lethal blow, then speedily retreats to await his next viable opportunity to strike again!

This kit is viable as a warrior or thief, though because thieves have numerous other skills, they are lacking a bit compared to a warrior, as notated below.

** The Antagonist is granted his parry bonus to Armor Class every round in combat, even those he is given a strike against his opponent. The number of opponents an Antagonist can parry at one time is 2 at first level, +1 additional opponent at 7th, 13th, and 19th levels for a total potential of 5 at one time (for warriors only, thieves gain no additional). NOTE: If the new initiative rules ever take effect, I propose he gain 3 parries at first level, and progress up to a possible 6 parries by 19th level. This shouldn’t be as bad, seeing that he never wastes a move on the attack.

** The block is a natural part of the Antagonist's purely defensive style. Even when an attack hits his AC, he is allowed a defense roll to still block the hit for no damage. The base # for this roll is 5. The difference between the hit and the Antagonist's AC is deduced, and then added to the base # to determine what number needs to be rolled to successfully block the attack. (For example, if the Antagonist's AC is 2, and the attack roll struck a -3, the differential would be 5; thus, 5+5=10, so the Antagonist's defense roll would need to be 11 or better to successfully block the attack.) Naturally, a nat-20 rolled against him can never be blocked.

** The only attack granted the Antagonist is known as his retributive strike. When this defensive specialist has fooled, worn down, or angered his enemy enough to make a mistake, he takes full advantage of the opening with a lethal attack from his dagger in close. In game terms, it means the Antagonist can only attack when one of two conditions are met:1) an attack by the opponent misses his AC by at least 10 or more, or 2) the Antagonist successfully blocks an attack by the opponent that should have hit. (The former is indicative of the Antagonist's quickness, that he was able to easily slip in and strike due to tardiness or inexperience; the latter more indicative of taking the enemy by surprise, as the enemy's attack should have hit—and would have any other opponent!—but was successfully blocked aside so that the Antagonist could slip in and strike himself.) When a retributive strikeoccurs, the Antagonist still has to roll a natural attack against his opponents AC (it doesn't automatically hit), but when he hits, the attack gains a multiplier to the damage based on the thieves' backstab, according to his level (1-4: x2 ; 5-8: x3 ; 9-12: x4 ; 13+: x5). Also, keep in mind that this strike will always—and can only—be done by the dagger!

** The Antagonist may acquire the Finesse feat to improve his attack roll.

** Once every 3 levels, the Antagonist can put one proficiency into improving the defensive style. It can be used in one of two ways: he can either add a +1 to the damage of his retributive strike (to be added on after the damage multiplier), or he can lower the base # of his defensive roll by 1 (to a minimum of 0).

DISADVANTAGES

** This combat style requires the use of 5 proficiencies from character creation: 1 slot for the Joint Blade defensive style specialty, 2 slots for the defensive block, and 2 slots for the retributive strike. These must all be taken at character creation.

** No proficiency or feat can be taken that increases attack or damage bonuses of the style (save for Finesse, as noted above). This includes specialization in either the sword or dagger—the style is a specialization in itself! (Please note, however, that proficiencies/feats which improve Armor Class, such as tumbling or Combat Expertise, are permitted! These bonuses work toward the improvement of the defensive specialty, not the offensive.) Please note, also, that natural strength bonuses do apply for damage, but only for attack if the Finesse Feat isn’t used.

** Because the Antagonist's style relies on patience and defensive skill opening up offensive opportunity, he suffers penalties when attempting to attack normally with his weapons. In a perfect world, the Antagonist would never use his sword for offensive purposes. For this reason, he has a -3 to attack when using the sword on the offensive, though he receives only a -1 penalty for use of his dagger outside his style, since the dagger is his primary offensive tool. These penalties represent the Antagonist’s defensive specialization, as opposed to the normal attack-oriented nature of most lethal combatants. He has never been trained to use these blades in the standard sword/dagger Florentine styles. His high Dexterity score does nothing to alleviate these penalties, though a high natural Strength score or the Finesse Feat may cancel them. However, an Antagonist cannot fight outside his style and gain bonuses to attack, regardless of whether Strength and Finesse would so allow it or not—they may only negate the penalties. Magical weapons, however, may overcome this barrier.

** An Antagonist, by nature of his style, can never attack more than once in a combat round, and, even then, only when the criteria for a retributive strikehas been met. If the such criteria is never met in a round, the Antagonist receives no attack that round, but instead bides his time for when the opening might arrive. In accordance with this, the warrior Antagonists also fails to receive the additional attacks per round granted to all other warrior classes at the 7th and 13th level markers.

** Chain mail armor is the best possible armor available to an Antagonist. To properly employ his defensive style, he must remain agile, so more restrictive armors don't mesh. Less restrictive armor such as leather (for example) are also allowed. Naturally, the Antagonist can wear heavy armors if he chooses, but as these are not conducive to his defensive specialty, he will have to fight like a normal warrior, thus receiving the penalties for attack listed above. NOTE: If the new armor rules are in effect, this hindrance can be used to restrict Antagonists to wearing only armors that don’t inhibit his Dexterity score in any way, enabling him to wear any armor classification that still allows his 17 Dexterity, but prohibited from wearing any armor classification that lowers his Dexterity to 16. (And by “prohibited,” I mean he can wear them, but not use the fighting style effectively in them.)

_________________This is my word, and, as such, is beyond contestation.